MULTIPLE VARIATIONS OF THE SUPERFICIAL JUGULAR VEINS:  CASE REPORT AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Paraskevas, George; Natsis, Konstantinos; Ioannidis, Orestis; Kitsoulis, Panagiotis; Anastasopoulos, Nikolaos; Spyridakis, Ioannis

doi:10.14712/18059694.2014.7

Acta Medica > Archive > 2014, Vol. 57 > Issue 1 > MULTIPLE VARIATIONS OF THE SUPERFICIAL…

Acta Med. 2014, 57: 34-37

https://doi.org/10.14712/18059694.2014.7

MULTIPLE VARIATIONS OF THE SUPERFICIAL JUGULAR VEINS: CASE REPORT AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

George Paraskevas^a, Konstantinos Natsis^a, Orestis Ioannidis^a, Panagiotis Kitsoulis^b, Nikolaos Anastasopoulos^a, Ioannis Spyridakis^a

^aDepartment of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
^bDepartment of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece

The jugular venous system constitutes the primary venous drainage of the head and neck. It includes a profundus or subfascial venous system, formed by the two internal jugular veins, and a superficial or subcutaneous one, formed by the two anterior and two external jugular veins. We report one case of unilateral anatomical variations of the external and anterior jugular veins. Particularly, on the right side, three external jugular veins co-existed with two anterior jugular veins. Such a combination of venous anomalies is extremely rare. The awareness of the variability of these veins is essential to anesthesiologists and radiologists, since the external jugular vein constitutes a common route for catheterization. Their knowledge is also important to surgeons performing head and neck surgery.